No, 500 would not be equivalent to a 30. 125 is going to be the midpoint on each section - basically, it's a 14 point scale, spread over some funky interval instead of just 1-14. So a 125 in any section would essentially be a 7, which to my mind should be equivalent to a 7 or 8 on the current MCAT. So a 500 would equate more to a 21-24ish.

I do feel badly for the first batch or two of pre-meds applying with this scale, as they'll have to try to equate that back to the old scores to figure out where they are a good fit for applying (unless AAMC does some sort of scale conversion for the MSAR).

No, 500 would not be equivalent to a 30. 125 is going to be the midpoint on each section - basically, it's a 14 point scale, spread over some funky interval instead of just 1-14. So a 125 in any section would essentially be a 7, which to my mind should be equivalent to a 7 or 8 on the current MCAT. So a 500 would equate more to a 21-24ish.

I do feel badly for the first batch or two of pre-meds applying with this scale, as they'll have to try to equate that back to the old scores to figure out where they are a good fit for applying (unless AAMC does some sort of scale conversion for the MSAR).

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First wave will probably be scr*wed. My bet is that after the first wave, they'll just equate scores based on percentiles unil the new scores become the norm.

Well.... before we say the first wave is screwed, lets look at 118 to 132. Counting from 118, isn't that 15?
15 is the current section point system. They pretty much kept the same system, just added a 117 before the score, and added an extra section.
Now if the goal score for everyone is 30-33, or losing 4-5 in each section, we can assume the goal score is going to be between 508-512.
Want to get close the equivalent of a 36? Well, losing about 3 points from each section, we can assume the score for a 36 will be around a 516.

Now, these are just my predictions. We shall see what happens

EDIT: Look what @nemo123 posted. It all makes sense. Don't fix what is not broken, but don't add confusion.

This is typical SDN inflated syndrome. Remember, a 30 is in the 80th percentile of MCAT test takers, even though a 30 is far below the median 50th percentile of most matriculants into MD programs. Some schools have 33+ (91st percentile) as a 10th percentile applicants/matriculants.

This is typical SDN inflated syndrome. Remember, a 30 is in the 80th percentile of MCAT test takers, even though a 30 is far below the median 50th percentile of most matriculants into MD programs. Some schools have 33+ (91st percentile) as a 10th percentile applicants/matriculants.

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Exactly. Reality is pretty impressively distorted here. Lower 30s is a great score that, assuming no obvious issues, will put you in a great position to get an acceptance. Get a 36 or above and you're golden.

Unfortunately this seems lost on most people or people have unrealistic goals (ie, "I must go to Harvard!").

I read they're going to increase the cost to compensate for the extra time that proctors have to be there, given that the test will be extended by a few hours.

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Doesn't surprise me after seeing the $50 gift card they handed out to applicants who put in a "good faith effort" on the 2014 trial section, when they really just jacked the price up $50 to offset the gift card. Thank god I don't have to take this abomination.

To be honest, the new scale won't change much because they're going to give out percentiles just like they always have. All a school needs is just to compare percentile-to-percentile to get the equivalent comparison on the old test. The scale of the "score" itself is really doesn't matter.

Who cares about the score, it'll end up being judged based on percentiles anyways.

I never understood why the test isn't scored primarily by percentile in the first place. Sure, the exact score isn't an exact percentile, but the ranges are there and serve the same purpose. 1-45 is just as ambiguous and intuition-dodging as 1-1337 or 600-2600. It's all gibberish and relies on a frame of reference, whereas a percentile is pretty clear where the person is on the scale of test takers because it tells you exactly that.